F O U N D A T I O N​

H I S T O R Y O F P H O T O G R A P H Y :

Convex mirrors and lenses developed during the 16th century, the rays of light from the person are converged by the convex lens forming an image on the film or charged couple device in the case of a digital camera. The angle at which the light enters the lens depends on the distance of the object from the lens. If the object is close to the lens the light rays enter at a sharper angled. This results in the rays converging away from the lens. Advances in realism and accuracy in the history of Western art since the Renaissance were primarily the result of optical instruments such as the camera obscura, camera lucida, and curved mirrors, rather than solely due to the development of artistic technique and skill. The camera lucida is an optical device which merges an image of a scene and the artist’s hand on paper for tracing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface at the same time, as in a photographic double exposure. This allows the artist to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, allowing the accurate rendering of perspective. In contrast, the camera obscura is an optical device that projects a realtime image through a small pinhole (or lens) into a darkened room.

Joseph Niepce made the first photographic image using heliography. An engraved image was placed on a metal plate and coated in bitumen, and then exposed to light. The shadowy areas blocked light whereas the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. Once the metal plate was placed in solvent animage started slowly appearing, but took eight hours to develop. In 1829 Daguerre partnered with Niepce and altered his invention and used the vapour of mercury to ‘fix’ the image. This was called the daguerreotype and was released in 1838. In 1839 the french government declared the daguerroetype free to the world. There was competition concerning the first preserved image between France and England. Whilst Niepce made the first photographic image, William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype process which is an early photographic process introduced in 1840, using paper coated with silver iodine. It's advantage was that it could be reproduced as a negative as opposed to being a single, undupicatable image. As the industrial revolution transformed society in the 1800's, scientists endeavoured to reproduce reality in a fixed format. In the early years, many photographers were concerned with documentation and continued to focus on traditional fine art themes such as portraiture and landscape. Over time this changed as photographers started to assert their own identity, separate to that of contemporary artists.

P H O T O G R A M S

During exposure, values in the image can be adjusted by reducing the amount of light to a specific area of animage by blocking light to it either all or part of the exposure time. After the exposure the photographic paper still appears blank but is ready to be processed. It’s put in photographic developer, an alkaline which makes the print visible, a stop bath (acid), fixed in photographic fixer which stabilises the image by removing unexposed silver halide remaining on the paper, washed and then dried.

F I R S T R E S P O N S E :

​S E C O N D R E S P O N S E - E X P E R I M E N T A L S :

Whilst experimenting in the dark room I produced 6 prints using different techniques. We used double exposure, "the repeated exposure of a photographic plate or film to light, often producing ghost images." This included exposing the paper to the light twice and moving the object around to create a layered effect, I used my hand to show movement as well as double exposure. Solarisation, "a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone." As soon as the image starts emerging in the developer you expose the image again to create an outlined effect. After exposing our paper another technique used was painting the developer onto the paper to create patterns.

​Below are my two final prints, the techniques I used are painting with developer and double exposure.

T H E P I N H O L E C A M E R A

The pin hole camera is based on the camera obscura, which is a large room or container that has been blacken out except for a small hole of light. We put photographic paper inside the tin we used as the camera an made sure than all light was blocked out. There was a small hole which was exposed to the light for 5-10 seconds depending on how big the hole was. After the paper was exposed to the light the hole was covered and the photograph was taken into the darkroom to develop. The 4 images below show the progress of the photograms as each time we changed the exposure time to get better results.

​S A N D W I C H P R I N T S

To achieve our sandwich prints we placed a piece of photographic paper under the enlarger with the photogram facing downwards, we then placed a piece of glass over the top and exposed it for 3 seconds.

​N A N C Y B R E S L I N

Nancy Breslin lives and works in Newark, Delaware, USA. Several years ago she discovered pinhole photography, and has since also ventured into work with alternative processes such as cyanotypes and gum prints. Her largest current project is Squaremeals: A Pinhole Diary of Eating Out, which consists of pinhole pictures of nearly every meal she has had in a restaurant or friend's home for over ten years.

The long exposures create an oddly distorted "diary" since the objects of her attention at the meal (her friends and family) become ghostly, while items she may not have noticed become prominent. All photos are in black and white which enhance the eeriness of them. The people are never in the centre of the composition, but slightly on the outside, whereas the objects on the tables are more focused. The camera is placed on the tables which gives an effect of secrecy, as if they don't know the photo is being taken.

B U I L D I N G S & A R C H I T E C T U R E

These are 10 photos I have taken at South bank, Bath and around London, they display imposing buildings and different types of architecture. I focused on the pattern and texture of certain buildings and took formal elements such as perspective and negative space into consideration.

T H E F I L M C A M E R A

In a manual SLR camera, the light has to pass through a lens, which sharpens the image and controls the intensity of light through a control known as the 'aperture'. The light is allowed to hit the film for a period of time, which is controlled by a shutter mechanism. For the 35mm film camera we used an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/125 in order to achieve sharp photos, and used a light intensity app on our phones to determine which aperture to use. A standard 50mm lens gives the same perspective as the human eye, Any lens that has a shorter focal length i.e. 18-50mm lens, will result in a wide angle perspective, however, any focal length over 50mm will magnify the scene and is known as a telephoto lens. After we had taken our 30 photos, the film was left in a developing container to ensure the film wasn't exposed to the light, and later developed in the dark room. The series of photos taken will be displayed in a contact sheet showing the variety of pictures taken.

From left to right, the shutter speeds go from fast to slow, this reveals a sharp, in focus picture, capturing movement. The middle image shows the object to become blurry as the shutter speed isn't as fast and can't freeze the image in movement. The third picture is completely blurry as it has a low shutter speed.

The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light. Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). A change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in.

F I R S T T A S K

"For every noteworthy image there are many more images taken before and after "the moment" that are often left unseen to anyone but the photographer himself. The contact sheet is often described as the photographer's sketch book."Our first task involved walking around Muswell Hill taking interesting pictures (portrait and landscape). We took these images using the film camera to create a contact sheet later to be developed.We took our film out of the camera, cut it into section so that it could fit on a piece of photographic paper and developed it in the darkroom. This was done by putting the film on top of the paper and using glass to flatten it, it was then exposed for around 3 seconds and put in the developed, stop and fix.

In order to develop one image from our contact sheet, we needed to do a test strip to see how long we should expose our image for. We placed the film on some photographic paper, underneath glass to flatten it. Using a piece of black card, we covered the majority of the film and set the timer for 2 seconds, moving the black card down further (revealing more film each time) and exposing it for another 2 seconds until we developed it. After it was developed we were able to see on the test strip how long it should be exposed for.

We did this with our own contact sheet, we took one image from our film and placed into the enlarger and adjusted the focus until the image was clear. The image was exposed for 3 and a half seconds and developed.